Thanksgiving is so much the focus this week that few people ever think about the inevitable "Day After" until it arrives. And there you are, with a half-gnawed turkey in the fridge and nothing but flat bubbly from the night before to wash it down. Take ownership of Friday. Whether it is a day off or another day at work, whether it is up at dawn to hit those pre-Christmas sales or a morning spent in bed weaning away a hangover, plan on turning that night's meal into a feast with a classic...

I'm thinking that the anticipation of the delights of the Thanksgiving table is as important (more important, perhaps?) as the meal itself. After all, eating the turkey, stuffing, casseroles and pies takes minutes, even with heaping plates of seconds — less than the halftime break of the Detroit Lions or Dallas Cowboys football game. But the anticipation? It goes on for weeks. I was struck by this idea as a colleague, Itasca Wiggins, rhapsodized more than a month ago about one of...

We've been writing about cool board games for two decades, with the goal to find new games that you might not have heard of. We tested 80 this year, and while we didn't set out to pick brainy games, our faves demand more than a little strategy. KIDS AnagraMania Jr. Find the hidden one-word anagram in each clue. Example clue: A detective "loves" to find the answer to a mystery. Answer: "Solve." Fun factor: You'll want to buy an additional box of clues ($14.97) to keep...

Two times a year, just twice, Pepperidge Farm white bread (sandwich or thin-sliced) is the St. John house loaf: in July and August, to make tomato sandwiches, and in November to fashion these leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. Why this brand? The pull of tradition, the bread's handy firmness after a light toast, plus the good measure of salt it sports. Any seasoned cook has a legion of uses for leftover turkey — hash, omelets, what used to be called casseroles but now are...

No item on the lunch menu at in the nice restaurant in the South Loop would do. "Do you have any non-cream-based soups?" Roland Burris asked the waitress, a blonde woman in her early 20s. She wasn't sure how to answer. Burris determined that none of the soups on the menu that day was healthy enough. "I'll just have a turkey sandwich then," Burris said. He panicked, though, when the turkey sandwich arrived along with my salmon salad and the lunches ordered by his two media handlers.

I'm thinking that the anticipation of the delights of the Thanksgiving table is as important (more important, perhaps?) as the meal itself. After all, eating the turkey, stuffing, casseroles and pies takes minutes, even with heaping plates of seconds — less than the halftime break of the Detroit Lions or Dallas Cowboys football game. But the anticipation? It goes on for weeks. I was struck by this idea as a colleague, Itasca Wiggins, rhapsodized more than a month ago about one of...

Regular turkey sandwiches are one of the best dividends of Thanksgiving, but sometimes something different appeals. The roasty flavors of vegetables sizzled on the grill prove irresistible in this easy-to-prep main-dish sandwich. Your gas grill makes cooking fast and simple. Brushing the vegetables with a little oil helps provide beautiful grill marks; it's important to grill them for at least three minutes per side--No poking! No peeking!--to get the appealing...

The pre-wrapped turkey sandwiches cooling under the Hudson's Grocery fluorescents are dry and free of toppings--a higher-class version of a gas station stomach-filler. But at least they're local. Fast food has conquered nearly every corner of the globe, but not this isolated Old Florida island playground of presidents and CEOs. Not yet, anyway. When Subway recently announced it would bring the first-ever chain restaurant here, islanders greeted the invasion with a level of acrimony...

It didn't just drive itself away. Someone took a custom-built, motorized wheelchair out of a Homer Glen driveway last week. With it the alleged thief took a measure of 4-year-old Stephen Sichak's independence. And his turkey sandwich. "The wheelchair was custom fit for him," Erin Sichak said Wednesday. "This is how my child moves around in the world, and the person that took this stuff took away his ability to do that." Sichak, 36, was getting Stephen ready for school on Oct. 10....

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs isn't just aging gracefully--no way. In classic Diddy style, he's pulling out all the stops, most recently with his Thursday night birthday bash, dubbed the Royal Birthday Ball. The rap mogul/clothing designer/voter activist/actor kicked off his 35th year of life at New York's Cipriani's restaurant with an exclusive, all-night party. Invitations to the swanky shindig were sent to celebs including Spike Lee, Mariah Carey, Vivica A. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Stevie Wonder and Chris Rock.

Confronted with a 4-pound slice of cake--such as the one served at Gibsons Steakhouse--what do you do? The massive size says whole cake. The shape screams just-one-piece. It's a dietary enigma, says Andrew Geier, co-author of an article that appeared in June's Psychological Science journal that examined how portion size shapes the way, and how much, we eat. The University of Pennsylvania psychology doctoral candidate likens Gibsons' absurd piece of cake...

It didn't just drive itself away. Someone took a custom-built, motorized wheelchair out of a Homer Glen driveway last week. With it the alleged thief took a measure of 4-year-old Stephen Sichak's independence. And his turkey sandwich. "The wheelchair was custom fit for him," Erin Sichak said Wednesday. "This is how my child moves around in the world, and the person that took this stuff took away his ability to do that." Sichak, 36, was getting Stephen ready for school on Oct. 10....

We've been writing about cool board games for two decades, with the goal to find new games that you might not have heard of. We tested 80 this year, and while we didn't set out to pick brainy games, our faves demand more than a little strategy. KIDS AnagraMania Jr. Find the hidden one-word anagram in each clue. Example clue: A detective "loves" to find the answer to a mystery. Answer: "Solve." Fun factor: You'll want to buy an additional box of clues ($14.97) to keep...

Ten minutes past noon and Michael Donahue is at ease, and consciously so. He is leaning up against the plaza wall at Madison Street and Wabash Avenue. Warm sunshine beats down as he watches the thick lunchtime crowd shuffle by. He is slightly behind his lunchtime schedule, but that is no matter. He is only a few minutes off the routine that he abides by year-round no matter the weather, and usually no matter what is doing at the office. If he can't stick to his routine,...

Roasted turkey is exciting, succulent and festive on T-Day. It's even OK to nibble the bones the next couple of days but . . . then it's over. The romance with turkey is over. My suggestions? Freeze some of those turkey leftovers to enjoy at a time when Thanksgiving is a distant memory for your family. Or try delicious and varied dishes using the remaining turkey. That's my focus with these recipes. First, there's a wonderful broiled open-face curried turkey sandwich, it's appealing and...

"Eat all you want and lose weight." It sounds like an ad on late-night television, and such an obvious overstatement might make readers shake their heads in disbelief, disappointment and disgust. But there is truth behind the statement, along with a few caveats. Nutritionists at Cornell University have come up with some convincing evidence that you can lose weight without calorie restrictions, without bird- sized portions. Their findings, reported in the May issue of the American Journal of...

Thanksgiving is so much the focus this week that few people ever think about the inevitable "Day After" until it arrives. And there you are, with a half-gnawed turkey in the fridge and nothing but flat bubbly from the night before to wash it down. Take ownership of Friday. Whether it is a day off or another day at work, whether it is up at dawn to hit those pre-Christmas sales or a morning spent in bed weaning away a hangover, plan on turning that night's meal into a feast with a classic...

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs isn't just aging gracefully--no way. In classic Diddy style, he's pulling out all the stops, most recently with his Thursday night birthday bash, dubbed the Royal Birthday Ball. The rap mogul/clothing designer/voter activist/actor kicked off his 35th year of life at New York's Cipriani's restaurant with an exclusive, all-night party. Invitations to the swanky shindig were sent to celebs including Spike Lee, Mariah Carey, Vivica A. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Stevie Wonder and Chris Rock.